Back Injury Sidelines Lucas Duda, but Mets’ Other Bats Fill the Gap

WASHINGTON — A few hours before the Mets opened their three-game series against the division-leading Washington Nationals on Monday, the Mr. Met on Manager Terry Collins’s cap was a picture of optimism: running, smiling and wide-eyed.

Below Mr. Met’s cheery face, though, Collins stared out glumly as he confirmed that Lucas Duda, the slugging first baseman whose offense was an integral part of the Mets’ success the last two seasons, had a stress fracture in his lower back. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list and will be out, Collins said, four to six weeks.

“Could be longer,” Collins added. “Don’t plan on it being shorter.”

On Monday night, the Mets hardly missed Duda and his big bat, which knocked 27 homers last season and 30 in 2014. They slugged three homers in a 7-1 win, pulling to a half-game behind the Nationals before Tuesday night’s matchup between Stephen Strasburg and Matt Harvey.

The Mets jumped on Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez for five runs in the third inning, which included a three-run homer by David Wright. In the fifth, Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo shot for his 15th homer of the year, first in the majors, and Neil Walker also homered.

The only Met who most likely posed no threat of homering was pitcher Bartolo Colon, who hit his first earlier this season. A day shy of 43, Colon told Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos that he planned not to swing his bat and, true to his word, struck out three times. But he also gave up just one run and five hits in seven innings to improve to 4-3.

Image

Mets first baseman Lucas Duda in 2014. He hit 30 home runs that season and 27 the next, and he has seven this season.CreditLynne Sladky/Associated Press

The Mets lead the National League with 63 home runs in 44 games, which is not to say that they will not miss Duda, 30, who was batting .231 with seven homers and 19 runs batted in. Duda, batting from the left side, provided balance in the No. 5 spot after the right-handed cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes during last season’s run to the World Series. In the National League Championship Series against the Cubs, Duda hit .400 with a home run and six R.B.I.

“We don’t have a guy that’s going to hit 25 to 30,” Collins said in reference to home runs, “but we’ve got to space it out amongst everybody else.”

Should Collins fail to squeeze out those extra homers, Mets fans would most likely clamor for a midseason trade — like the one that brought them Cespedes last year — as the team seeks to repeat as a division winner for the first time in franchise history.

John Ricco, the Mets’ assistant general manager, declined to rule out a trade Monday, saying that to replace Duda, the team would “look internally first” but “also take a look externally.”

With the trade deadline more than two months off, the immediate chatter centered around who would replace Duda in the short to medium term. One possibility is the former shortstop Wilmer Flores. He could return from the disabled list, where he was sent May 12 with a left hamstring injury, by the end of the week. Another option is the utility player Ty Kelly, who was called up for the first time from Class AAA Las Vegas, where he was leading the Pacific Coast League in batting average (.391).

An intriguing option, Collins and Ricco both confirmed, is left fielder Michael Conforto, whose move to the infield would allow Cespedes to return full time to left, where he once won a Gold Glove.

The main challenge is that Conforto has never played first base.

“You have to be careful with a young player who doesn’t even have a year under his belt who’s in the three hole, and now you’re going to switch positions on him?” said Ricco. “That’s something we’re not going to do lightly.”

Eric Campbell, a frequent pinch-hitter who entering Monday was batting .214 this season, started Monday night at first base, while Conforto sat out against the left-hander Gonzalez. Campbell had a sacrifice fly Monday night for his second R.B.I. of the season.

Flores — last season’s starting shortstop, since supplanted by the new arrival Asdrubal Cabrera — could return Friday, when the Mets open a series at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ricco said he expected Flores to play first base at Class AA Binghamton, though not exclusively.

“We want to see what Wilmer can do there,” Ricco said. “Eric’s going to have a few good games here. So we just got this news. We’re going to keep all our options open.”

Collins agreed, saying that half-measures might not be enough for a franchise and a fan base that shared a “win now” mentality.

“We’re not in a position right now to just test guys,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B12 of the New York edition with the headline: With Duda Out, Mets’ Other Bats Fill the Gap. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe